Windows CMD and PowerShell Commands Every User Should Know (2026)

The Windows command line is still the fastest way to fix network problems, find files, check your system and automate boring tasks. This guide covers the commands developers and power users actually use on Windows 10 and Windows 11, with the Command Prompt (CMD) version and the PowerShell equivalent side by side.

How to open the command line

• Quickest: press Win+R, type cmd or powershell, press Enter.
• As administrator: press Win+X and choose Terminal (Admin). Commands that change system settings need this.
• In a folder: in File Explorer, click the address bar, type cmd and press Enter to open CMD already in that folder.

Navigating folders and files

:: list everything, including hidden files, one page at a time
dir /a | more

:: show the folder tree
tree C:\Projects /f

Finding files and text

# find every .log file under the current folder
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.log

# the 10 largest files under C:\Users\you\Downloads
Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads" -Recurse -File |
  Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 Name, @{n='MB';e={[math]::Round($_.Length/1MB,1)}}

# search inside files for a word (like grep)
Select-String -Path .\src\*.js -Pattern "TODO"

:: CMD version: search text in files
findstr /s /i "TODO" *.js

Network troubleshooting

# is a port open on a server? (great for testing web servers and databases)
Test-NetConnection example.com -Port 443

# which program is using port 3000?
Get-Process -Id (Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 3000).OwningProcess

Processes and services

:: list running programs
tasklist

:: force-close a frozen app by name or PID
taskkill /im chrome.exe /f
taskkill /pid 4512 /f

# top 5 processes by memory
Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet -Descending | Select-Object -First 5 Name, Id, @{n='MB';e={[int]($_.WorkingSet/1MB)}}

# check and restart a service (run as admin)
Get-Service -Name Spooler
Restart-Service -Name Spooler

System information and repair

Installing software with winget

Windows 10 and 11 include winget, a package manager. It installs and updates apps without visiting websites:

winget search vscode
winget install Microsoft.VisualStudioCode
winget install Git.Git OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS Python.Python.3.12

# update every app that has an update
winget upgrade --all

Environment variables and PATH

# show PATH, one folder per line
$env:Path -split ';'

# where is a program installed?
Get-Command node
where.exe python

A tiny automation example

Save this as backup.ps1 to copy a project folder into a dated backup folder:

$source = "C:\Projects\my-site"
$dest   = "D:\Backups\my-site-$(Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd)"
Copy-Item $source $dest -Recurse
Write-Host "Backed up to $dest"

Run it with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\backup.ps1, or schedule it with Task Scheduler.

Handy shortcuts

• Tab completes file and folder names.
• ↑ / ↓ scroll through previous commands.
• Ctrl+C stops a running command.
• Add /? to any CMD command (dir /?) or use Get-Help in PowerShell (Get-Help Copy-Item -Examples) to see its options.

Which command do you use most? Share it in the comments.